Lookonline.com is the longest running fashion site on the Internet. Published since 1994.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

New York Evening Hours by Lieba Nesis

School of American Ballet Holds Winter Gala at Lincoln Center

The Young Dancers
All photos Lieba Nesis
Click images for full size views

The School of American Ballet (SAB) held its annual Winter Ball at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center on March 8, 2018 with cocktails beginning at 7 PM. SAB, the official yet independent training academy of New York City Ballet, was established in 1934 by legendary choreographer George Balanchine and philanthropist Lincoln Kirstein. Located at Lincoln Center, SAB trains almost 1,000 youth ages 6 to 19 annually (with more than 3,000 auditioning per year), and provides $2 million in financial aid to 46% of the student body.

Vanessa Lawrence in Oscar and Jill Kargman in Chanel

Students come from all over the country to attend this preeminent institution with over 40% self-identified as students of color. The evenings chairs were Renata Garcia, Joyce Giuffra and Elizabeth Gosnell Miller with honorary chair Julia Koch a no-show. The glamorous ball which has taken place for the past 13 years is a celebration of the students and faculty at SAB. However, there was a noticeable component missing from this electric evening and that was the presence of former Artistic Director Peter Martins.

Coco and Arie Kopelman with Alexis Mintz

Martins was forced to retire after 30-years of service due to questionable behavior and a replacement for this superstar genius will be difficult ,if not impossible, to find. The charisma and expertise of Martins who was a choreographer, mentor and administrator as well as being one of the most respected Balanchine dancers of his generation, gave SAB an undeniable gravitas. As SAB searches for a new director the school remains in limbo.

Vanessa Lawrence, Jill Kargman, Amanda Brotman and Caroline Lagerfelt

This evening contained 350 prominent guests who came to pay tribute to the students including: Indre Rockefeller, Geoffrey Bradfield, Michael and Tara Rockefeller, Margo Langenberg, Jean and Martin Shafiroff, Jennifer Creel, Jill and Harry Kargman, the Kopelman family, Amanda Brotman, and many others.

Jean Shafiroff

Some of my favorite fashion choices were Indre Rockefeller in a black-and-white Herrera, Jean Shafiroff in a floral Zac Posen, and Jill Kargman in an off-white Chanel with a Marc Jacobs skirt flowing underneath.

Chairman of Board Barbara Vogelstein

Another beautifully dressed attendee was Master of Ceremonies and CBS anchor, Tanya Rivero Warren, who wore a silver sequined gown. She said as a former SAB student herself she remembers her Russian dance teacher telling the girls, "you must always be a ballerina even on the street because your fans expect a ballerina."

Arieh Bates and Heidi Magnussen

Warren said this was her teacher's admonition to students to put their best foot forward in whatever they were doing. Rivero also urged attendees to donate to the Toe Shoe Fund since professional dancers run through one pair every night which cost $100 each-proving an exorbitant cost for underpaid dancers.

Newly appointed Executive Director Carrie Hinrichs took to the stage to thank Peter Martins for his incredible artistic achievements over the past 30 years while noting that 98% of the dancers from New York City Ballet are former SAB alumni. Hinrichs asked the alumni to stand up and excitedly announced that more than $900,000 had been raised.

Choreographer Alec Knight and Alexa Maxwel

The highlight of this evening, besides from the pink and purple hued room with tutus hanging from the ceiling, was the young dancers performance which was choreographed by 21-year-old Australian Alec Knight.

The dancers

Knight praised the dancers whom he referred to as "unsung heroes" for leaving their homes at the age of 17 to come dance. He also thanked Peter Martins for believing in him even though he was on the other side of the world.

Michael and Tara Rockefeller

Knight who later told me that he missed Martins presence said ultimately what made SAB special was the dancers. He called Peter his "biggest inspiration" and said Martins meant a lot to him.

Ashley Bouder

Principal dancer, Ashley Bouder, reiterated this sentiment by acknowledging that without Peter something tangible was missing; yet she remained confident that new opportunities and visions would be available for the Company.

Harry Kargman and Will Kopelman

Indeed the performance of the students was riveting as young girls and boys danced their hearts out with the expertise of veterans. There was a modern element to their dance routines as the intrepid dancers moved with a notable alacrity to the jazzy music-even incorporating some vogue-like movements.

Margo Langenberg and Geoffrey Bradfield

As the evening concluded, dancers headed to the dance floor to cheer each other and join hands in a symbol of unity and triumph that was infectious. Soon after the crowd danced to the tunes of Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars and Madonna as a double dessert of sorbet and chocolate cake was served-a savory conclusion to a Monday night evening.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Featured Post

Costume Designers Are the Real West Coast Fashionistas The Audience CDG . . . To any normal living breathing fashion person, those ...

E-mailed Newsletter: Get every new post sent directly to your in box

Exclusive Sponsor

We’re pleased to welcome Talbots as the premiere exclusive sponsor of Wednesdays at Michael’s by Diane Clehane and salute the company’s mission to empower women in all aspects of their lives.
Through their relationships and carefully curated product lines, Talbots strives to give women the confidence to express their best selves in all aspects of their lives – every day. Fundamentally, Talbots believes that the better we do, the more we can do to positively impact the lives of women. Talbots is honored to partner with Dress for Success for a fourth year. Find out how you can help at talbots.com/dressforsuccess.

Support our site

Become a supporting member of our site for a one time contribution of only $59. Click
here and become a member. Our site has been up for 23 years and we depend upon the "kindness of strangers".

New York Market Reports

Marilyn Kirschner our editor-in-chief and former senior Market Editor of Harper's Bazaar for many years reports on the Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer New York collections for every season going back over 15 years. These kinds of reports are found no where else and are offered free to our readers. Additional past commentary was written for us by Bernadine Morris the former senior fashion writer of the New York Times.
Click here for the latest fall/winter 2018 report and links to all the other past reports..

About Me

Lookonline.com is the longest publishing online fashion site in the world. It was launched first as a BBS service in 1993 and has been on the Internet since December 1994. The DFR: Daily Fashion report is also the first fashion blog and was started in early 2002 as the site's main news page. Before launching the site, I was for many years a New York fashion photographer.